First off, we’d like to wish a Happy Christmas to our readers! Thanks for sticking with us. We’re well chuffed with the speed that the site is growing and we hope to have lots more for you in the new year.
Now that it’s Christmas, folks often choose to spread the festive cheer by firing off some SMSs to their chums, so here’s some stats we thought you might be interested in.
Festive texting
Not surprisingly, the holiday period is one of the busiest texting periods, building up to a veritable frenzy on New Year’s Day.
Christmas Day 2008 saw 337,210,764 text messages being sent in the UK (up 26% on the year before) with New Year’s Day notching up a massive 397,878,407 SMS messages (up 37% on 2007/8).
MMS messages registered at 4,464,163 for Christmas Day (up 38%) and 2,690,898 for New Year’s Day (up 36%).
Texting still on the rise
The figures for the second half of this year are yet to be released, but during June and July a total of 7.7 billion texts were sent every month (48.13m and 49.62m for Picture Messaging respectively).
Here’s how the annual SMS totals have risen in recent years:
2008 total 78.9 billion
2007 total 56.9 billion
2006 total 41.8 billion
Top Texting Days
Text.it, the Mobile Data Association’s website for facts and stats on Picture Messaging, Text Messaging and Mobile Internet have compiled an interesting list of ‘Top Texting Days’, although it rather seems stuck in the past:
1. New Year’s Day 2007 – 214 million messages were sent on New Year’s Day 2007, the highest daily total ever recorded by the Mobile Data Association.
2. New Year’s Day 2006 – 165 million messages were sent on New Year’s Day 2006
3. World Cup 2006 – 1st July England v Portugal, 140 million messages sent
4. World Cup 2006 – 15th June England v Trinidad & Tobago, 140 million messages sent
5. August 17th 2006 – 137 million messages were sent on A-Level results day
6. August 24th 2006 – 136 million messages were sent on the day that GSCE results were announced
7. New Year’s Day 2005 – On New Year’s Day 2005, 133 million text messages were sent
8. World Cup 2006 – 20th June England v Sweden, 130 million messages sent
9. Champion’s League Final May 17th 2006 – 124 million messages were sent on the day of the Champions League Final, when Barcelona beat Arsenal.
10. FA Cup Final day May 13th 2006 – Over 120 million messages were sent on the day that Liverpool beat West Ham to win the FA Cup.
11. Valentine’s Day 2006 – 120 million messages were sent on February 14th 2006
12. World Cup 2006 – 25th June England v Ecuador, 117 million messages sent
13. World Cup 2006 – 10th June England v Paraguay, 117 million messages sent
14. New Year’s Day 2004 – On New Year’s Day 2004, the number of text messages reached 111 million, the highest daily total for the year
15. New Year’s Day 2003 – On New Year’s Day 2003, the number of text messages sent in one day topped one hundred million for the first time
